38 ALIMENTATION". 



complete scientific history of inanition ever written, deduced 

 from data which are, and probably always will be, unpar- 

 alleled in magnitude. The pathological questions will be 

 fully considered in one of the volumes on the Medical and 

 Surgical History of the Rebellion, now in course of prep- 

 aration under the direction of the Commission ; and in this 

 connection, will be considered, generally in the author's own 

 words, the points which bear mainly on the effects of insuf- 

 ficient alimentation, though the other circumstances under 

 which the prisoners were placed must necessarily be taken 

 into account. 



The following extract from an official report by Dr. 

 Jones, dated October 19, 1864, gives an idea of the sanitary 

 condition under which the prisoners were placed : 



" Immediately after the brief report upon hospital gan- 

 grene had been forwarded to the surgeon-general, I re- 

 paired to Camp Sumpter, Andersonville, Georgia, and insti- 

 tuted a series of investigations upon the diseases of the 

 Federal prisoners. 



" The field was of great extent and of extraordinary in- 

 terest. There were more than five thousand (5,000) seriously 

 sick in the hospital and stockade, and the deaths ranged 

 from ninety to one hundred and thirty each day. Since the 

 establishment of this prison, on the 24th of February, 1864, 

 to the present time, over ten thousand Federal prisoners have 

 died : that is, near one-third of the entire number have per- 

 ished in less than seven months. I instituted careful investi- 

 gations into the condition of the sick and well, and per- 

 formed numerous post-mortem examinations, and -executed 

 drawings of the diseased strictures. The medical topography 

 of Andersonville and the surrounding country was exam- 

 ined, and the waters of the streams, springs, and wells 

 around and within the stockade and hospital carefully 

 analyzed. 



" Diarrhosa, dysentery, scurvy, and hospital gangrene 

 were the diseases which have been the main causes of the 



